afrol News, 29 April - After South African President Thabo Mbeki didn't renew the ministerial post of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Zulu nationalist Inkatha party, the two other Inkatha Ministers have refused to participate in South Africa's new cabinet. Meanwhile, in KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC and Inkatha continue talks to form a new coalition provincial government.
The Inkatha Freedom Party has been the driving political force in KwaZulu-Natal since the end of apartheid ten years ago. Leading up to the 1994 and 1999 elections, armed conflicts between followers of the Inkatha and President Mbeki's ANC were common in the eastern province. Zulu nationalist leader Buthelezi was made South African Minister of Home Affairs partly in a move to create national reconciliation.
During this month's election campaign, however, the tone between the two parties was all but reconciliating. The Inkatha sought an alliance with the conservative opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal, but made a poor election, getting far behind the ANC. This spurred President Mbeki to sack Minister Buthelezi from the national government yesterday.
Today, the Inkatha party as answered by rejecting its two other Deputy Minister posts in the new cabinet, dominated by the ANC. Party members had been given the posts of Deputy Minister of Sport and Deputy Minister of Public Works after the cabinet reshuffle.
According to President Mbeki, he had today received letters from the two Inkatha members, saying that "the leadership of their party had discussed this matter and wanted to have further discussion. And therefore they declined to be sworn in this morning."
The two Inkatha members had demanded to await the results of the provinsial government negotiations in KwaZulu-Natal before accepting the posts in the national government. Mr Mbeki today however stated that, since the two Inkatha members had "declined to serve," he would appoint others to the posts.
The Inkatha has yet to make a public statement regarding its rejection to participate in the new cabinet. The party's national spokesman Musa Zondi nevertheless told the South African news agency SAPA that the case was illustrating of "the state of relations between the two parties." His party is largely seen as profiling stronger its position as South Africa's largest black opposition party by the move.
Mr Zondi further denied that this would have any influence on the situation in KwaZulu-Natal. Here, negotiations between the Inkatha and the ANC to form a coalition government are continuing. The ANC surprisingly became the largest party in the province but failed to gain the majority.
KwaZulu-Natal has ended up with a chaotic parliamentary situation, where the ANC would have to form a coalition with two smaller parties to avoid the Inkatha. The Inkatha, on the other hand, had hoped to gain majority together with the DA, but the two parties would also need to cooperate with to small parties to form a government. Together, however, the ANC and Inkatha would have a comfortable majority.
According to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, talks on a possible coalition government are still going on in "a cordial spirit," uninfluenced by the Inkatha's rupture with government in Pretoria. "We expect that the talks will be finalised by the end of next week," the ANC said in a statement.
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